This chapter analyzes the structures and processes in place for knowledge transfer from publicly financed research in Germany. The chapter discusses the common channels of knowledge transfer from universities and public research institutes in Germany and the policies implemented to enhance the transfer. The chapter also discusses changes in the German knowledge transfer system and their impact, such as the abolition of professor’s privilege, the introduction of patent valorization agencies, and other major funding schemes. The chapter reviews scholarly literature relating to knowledge transfer in Germany and research findings from interviews with selected university knowledge transfer offices and policymakers. The chapter also presents results from a survey sent to all knowledge transfer offices at German universities. It concludes that while efforts have been made to foster systematic knowledge transfer from science to industry in the past decade in Germany, universities and public research institutes need to deepen the understanding of intellectual property and business-relevant research and applications within their institutes and to further improve knowledge transfer between their researchers and industry.

Universities and public research institutes are encouraged to collaborate with industries and promote knowledge transfer from academia to the private sector in order to promote commercialization of inventions and to foster innovations that would facilitate economic growth. Patenting research outputs is one way of facilitating this knowledge transfer. This chapter focuses on tracking patenting as a way of measuring performance of public research organizations. The chapter proposes how patent filings across different countries using patent data filed through the Patent Cooperation Treaty can be captured and compared and how national-level patent data can be compiled using the PATSTAT database. The chapter shows that global patenting by public research institutions and universities has increased in the last thirty-five years, with patenting dominance shifting from Europe and the United States to Asia. It shows that while private sector businesses continue to play a major role in global patenting, public research organizations are emerging as important innovation drivers. The chapter concludes that while there are limitations in using patent data and the extent to which it measures innovativeness, these data are still useful in helping to identify potential weaknesses and highlight strengths of public research organizations.

This chapter analyzes the progress that Chinese universities and public research institutes have made in the fields of research and education as well as the factors that hinder the growth of knowledge transfer from universities and public research institutes to firms in China. The chapter describes how the role of universities and public research institutes in China has evolved in recent decades with the transition to a market economy. It reviews the laws and policies governing knowledge transfer activities in China. It examines the various channels of knowledge transfer that universities and public research institutes in China use to transfer technology such as making new knowledge publicly available at no cost and through cooperative arrangements, including contract research and collaboration, licensing, and establishing spinoff enterprises. The chapter concludes that while Chinese universities and public research institutes have been dramatically transformed in order to meet government policy goals of producing cutting-edge scientific and technological developments to support economic and social advancement since the 1980s, there are challenges in the areas of limited licensing opportunities for leading technologies, lack of long-term financial support, ambiguous corporate governance and regulations, and underdeveloped intermediary agencies resulting in high transaction costs that remain to be addressed.

This chapter shows that implementing similar policies supporting the transfer of knowledge from public research to industry in countries with different innovation systems requires different sets of complementary policies. Drawing on six case studies, which range from high- (UK, Germany, Republic of Korea) to middle-income countries (China, Brazil, South Africa), this chapter describes the process of policy convergence and why countries might differ substantially in their approach. In high-income countries with mature national innovation systems, the adoption of Bayh-Dole-inspired legislation meant that research expected to produce patents was incentivized and preferred over other types of commercialization. The policy challenge here is to ensure all channels of knowledge transfer are appropriately nurtured. In middle-income economies, where knowledge ecosystems were less mature, the Bayh-Dole legislation resulted in a process of institutional reform, such as incentives to researchers, changing the legal structure of the university incomes and the use of public research institutes. Thus, for knowledge transfer policies to be successful, it is crucial to identify the appropriate complementary measures.